Five trainers with different backgrounds but a common approach to training. Our skills and experience complement each other and we work as a team to provide a wide range of expertise for our clients.

Connect on LinkedinNike Siffre

"My training approach is inspired by the learning and development that has motivated and helped me most in my own work.  I believe that we learn best in a fun, challenging, inspirational and non-judgemental environment. Most importantly, good learning should give you new ideas, skills and confidence - to make a real difference in your work, the very next day and beyond." 

Nike has built a career in Communications and Marketing – both in the UK and globally - for over 20 years. Her experience comes from working with multi million pound brands, tiny startups and small businesses alike - within Education, Healthcare, Recruitment, Financial Services, Media and Telecoms, as well as in the public and non-profit sector.

Nike brings a wealth of commercial experience to her training, coaching and facilitation; with an understanding that the most successful organisations are founded on skilled, motivated and happy people. She was Marketing Director of Planning & Strategy at Virgin Media until 2008, where she worked extensively in Employee Engagement – including the development of senior management, leadership, graduate induction, teambuilding and change management programmes.

Connect on LinkedinCarolyn Graham

"My approach is to create a lively, trusting and open environment in order that those attending can both enjoy the learning experience as well as understand how that learning can be practically applied back in the work place. I encourage high levels of group interaction and strongly believe in the effectiveness of individuals learning from one another."

Carolyn Graham has over 25 years experience as a senior executive in the arts and entertainment industry, working in both the commercial and not for profit sectors, with particular experience of organisational development and change management, problem solving and negotiation, union negotiation and all aspects of people management.

Carolyn is also an accredited mediator, working with a number of the UK’s leading mediation providers (The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), ADRChambers, and as senior consultant to employment mediation specialists Consensio and has successfully mediated across a range of commercial, community and employment disputes . She is also passionate about how a greater use of mediation skills can bring benefit to the modern workplace and has for the last 5 years delivered a wide range of training courses in mediation and dispute resolution skills across the private, public and charitable sectors including within a number of universities and NHS Trusts

Carolyn combines her skills in conflict resolution with her experience and understanding of the day to day reality of the workplace and brings both to her work as trainer.

Kole Siffre

"My objective is always to find new ways to make my courses involving and interactive. Participants can see the point of what they're doing and its relevance to their work and continuing development. I look to teach skills which can be immediately used in the workplace, producing tangible and measurable benefits for the participants and the organisation"

Kole Siffre has been a specialist in designing and presenting training programmes in communication and organisational skills for over 30 years.

He was a training consultant at the Royal Institute for Public Administration (RIPA) and has worked with senior managers and staff from major companies, government departments, public authorities, trades unions, educational institutions and international organisations. His courses stem from practical management experience and he has an informed appreciation of the everyday management problems encountered by administrators, managers and specialists.

The aim of his highly participative courses is to teach people to teach themselves and to develop the interpersonal skills needed to encourage new ideas and effectiveness at work.

Connect on LinkedinValerie Thackeray

"I see training as a stimulating way of contributing to people's enjoyment and satisfaction in their work. My role is to provide energy and structured opportunities for people to step back from what they are doing, see it more objectively, make decisions about changes they want to make and practise the skills they will need. The reward when a long-term relationship is built up with a client is to see those small personal improvements gradually changing the organisation."

Valerie Thackeray has combined a career as a trainer in the public and private sectors with 13 years in arts management including managing the rapid expansion of Brighton Festival, restructuring its systems and doubling its turnover in four years.

Her experience as a manager adds a strong, realistic dimension to her training courses on event management and project management. She is also a linguist: her in-depth knowledge, instinct and enthusiasm for communication shines through the training and coaching she does to help people write effectively at work. As a skilled facilitator, she enjoys contributing to creative problem solving, helping groups to work together effectively, to raise the profile of a particular issue or to ensure wide and frank discussion of sometimes controversial subjects.

Connect on LinkedinMonika Wray

"I feel very strongly that if people are to have a successful learning experience, they must feel at ease and confident that their needs are being met. My training workshops are therefore structured but flexible, participative but never threatening, varied and never boring. I allow plenty of time for practice in the belief that you learn best by having a go and on the understanding that people work and learn at different rates and in different ways."

As a great believer in the Plain English, Monika is passionate about the importance of effective communication on paper – it saves time and leads to action. Monika Wray has been running training courses in communication and organisation skills for over 20 years. She runs one day workshops on Grammar, Punctuation and Proofreading, Report Writing and Minute Writing. When she can, she ensures that her own writing is practised and up-to-date by taking on writing and editing assignments mostly in the education world.

Monika is also a business coach, with an Advanced Diploma in Coaching and Mentoring and an experienced educational researcher. She is co-author with Eric Parsloe of 'Coaching and Mentoring: practical methods to improve learning' (2000).